This paper provides the first systematic analysis of the reasons why women endure
longer unemployment durations than men in post-restructuring urban China using data
obtained from a national representative household survey. Rejecting the view that women are
less earnest than men in their desire for employment, the analysis shows that women’s job
search efforts are handicapped by lack of access to social networks, social stereotyping (that
married women are unreliable employees), unequal access to social reemployment services
stemming from sex segregation prior to the displacement, and wage discrimination in the
post-restructuring labor market.